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Book #26 of 2014: Nineteen Minutes

Not long ago, there was a lot of controversy going around on Facebook about Nineteen Minutes. People were enraged because it was a reading list book for high schoolers and they felt that the “graphic” sex scene in it was inappropriate for this age group. I was intrigued and wanted to see what everyone was so up in arms about.

Nineteen Minutes chronicles the lives of several people and how they are affected by a school shooting in their sleepy small town. The story shifts between various points of view: Josie, one of the victims and former friend of the shooter; Alex, Josie’s mother; Peter, the shooter; and Peter’s parents and attorney. The book explores the idea that bullying can lead to someone eventually snapping and entering a dissociative state, specifically one in which the victim fights back against those people who have wronged him or her.

I feel odd saying that I enjoyed this book because of the subject matter, but it did start out on a good note. As I read on, I felt like there was a lot of dragging and I skimmed a lot of parts. I feel like a good hundred pages could have been cut out. There was an excess of rambling by Peter’s mother about how guilty she felt for somehow failing him and having him turn out to be a murderer. I know the point was to humanize the shooter, to see him as a real person instead of just a killer, but it just went on and on and on. And the “graphic” sex scene that everyone is so concerned about? Really, people? It lasted for about a paragraph and wasn’t any worse than any other similar scenes I’ve read in other books.

Overall, this one was OK. I was glad when it was over because I got tired of it pretty quickly. I felt awkward the entire time, especially during Peter’s parts, because I wanted to feel bad for him about what he endured, but I could only feel for him so much. I mean, he murdered people, some of whom had never done a thing to him in his entire life. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

2 thoughts on “Book #26 of 2014: Nineteen Minutes”

I haven’t read the book but this statement – “People were enraged because it was a reading list book for high schoolers and they felt that the “graphic” sex scene in it was inappropriate for this age group.” attitude always amazes me. Book banners just waiting in the wings. Do people stop remembering what it was like to be a teenager when the supposedly become adults? So I guess people are enraged at the thought that teenagers actually have sex? I can guarantee you teenagers can come up with their own graphic sex scenes in their own minds and really don’t need a book to help them along. All they need is hormones. (Source: I have already experienced three of them and have been given way too much TMI because they “like to talk to me”. Oh, and I WAS one at one point in time.) I’m glad you read what you choose.

My high school reading list? The Cather in the Rye, 1984, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Unbirthday, The Great Gatsby, Captains and the Kings. My baptist high school definitely wasn’t afraid of teaching us to think for ourselves. Which is kinda weird in and of itself. Story for another day.